Michael Vick given white makeover by ESPN

Michael Vick is the latest famous face to suffer an extreme makeover at the hands of Photoshop. Do you think the photo of a white Michael Vick created by ESPN goes too far?

Michael Vick’s race has been given a makeover by ESPN The Magazine. In an effort to prove their point, a heavy Photoshop hand took to changing the infamous football player’s face from black to white.

The September 5 edition of ESPN the Magazineincludes the photo of a white Michael Vick. While your average picture may be worth a mere thousand words, this gem is working overtime. With the accompanying headline What if Michael Vick were white?, the article attempts to analyze if the quarterback would have been treated differently if he were another race.

“Race is an undeniable and complex element of Vick’s story, both because of his style as well as the rarity of black QBs in the NFL. A decade after he became the first black QB to be drafted No. 1 overall, about one in five of the league’s passers is African-American, compared with two-thirds of all players. But after his arrest for dogfighting, so many people asked: Would a white football player have gotten nearly two years in prison for what Vick did to dogs?”

Yet articulate as the article may be, the words of author Toure’ can not be heard over the image — a fact that has not escaped him. “I asked them not to call it What If Vick Were White but they did.” Toure’ tweeted Thursday. “I had no idea they’d put a pic of Vick in whiteface.”